Behind the Scenes:
Notes from Museum Director
Rhoda Rosen
A Note From Museum Director Rhoda Rosen
September / October 2006
Spertus Museum's onsite exhibitions are closed, as staff prepares for the move to our new home. It is my pleasure to share some of our exciting plans.
Our team is hard at work on initiatives that will shape the visitor experience in our new facility. The new Museum will house an imaginative Children's Center, designed by Jim Lasko, Artistic Director of Chicago's dynamic Redmoon Theater. New galleries will display an innovative exhibition of our core collection, including Holocaust-era material, as well as original changing exhibitions that celebrate, challenge, and advance modern Jewish identity.
Spertus Museum educators Susan Marcus and Amanda Friedeman review designs by Jim Lasko of Redmoon Theater.
Spertus Museum educators are currently developing exhibition content, training docents, and preparing resources for teachers and parents. They are planning intergenerational cultural programming illustrative of our commitment to Jewish family life, and creating arts-based activities to bring Spertus Museum alive for visitors of all ages and backgrounds.
With the realization of the Children's Center and the new exhibitions, we further advance our mission to reach students in Chicago's schools with curriculum-related pre-collegiate education. Working directly with teachers is a vital component of this program.
Experience demonstrates that when teachers become comfortable with a subject such as the Holocaust and the importance of cross-cultural understanding they are more likely to integrate it successfully into their teaching practice, and Spertus provides the resources for them to do so. A series of teacher-training workshops begins this spring. I invite you to contact the Museum for more information.
Warm regards,
Rhoda Rosen
Director, Spertus Museum
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